the national portrait gallery in washington, d.c., unveiled the official portraits of former president barack obama and former first lady, michelle obama. we hear from the artist, amy cheryl, who described the process of creating the portrait. this is just under one hour. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome kim, director of the smithsonian's national portrait gallery. [applause] >> david's course and, second --

david, secretary of the smithsonian institution. miss amy, portrait artist. mr. wiley, portrait artist. mrs. michelle obama. [applause] president barack obama. [applause]

>> ladies and gentlemen, please theome to the podium director of the smithsonian national portrait gallery. [applause] >> good morning. and it is mym, pleasure as director to welcome you to the national portrait

gallery at the smithsonian institution. every commissioned portrait involves four people. is the s person itter who may be curious to see how his or her likeness will be captured in perpetuity. in a spirit of building allcipation, i did a warm come to the 44th president of the united states, barack obama, and his wife, former first lady, michelle obama, who be honored today. [applause] the second person as the artists, who tries in the face of public scrutiny to stay true to his or her own artistic style and still transmit a sense of

the internal spirit to external audiences. in many ways, it is as much a reflection of themselves as insight into their subjects. remaintrait artist must unique, and to quote baudelaire, realize a character. in the spirit of that bravery, i them intod to welcome our collection. this museum has the pleasure of in 2008 asir work part of the hip-hop and contemporary portraiture exhibition. amy we celebrated in 2016 when she became the first woman to win our portrait competition. taking the best of portraiture traditions and adding a fresh layer by oforbing the influence music, hip-hop, pop culture, and

painterly inventiveness. together, they are transmitting the energy of urban america into the contemplative places of high culture, and i am thrilled. the third person involved in making a commission is the patron, and as is tradition, we make an art match and then raise private funds to do the work. itn art match and then raise private funds to do the work. i am extraordinary grateful to all of those people across the country for whom we came for support and those who took the leadership roles, stephen spielberg and kate capshaw, judith kern, and others. finally, it is the fourth person that is supposedly the most important, you, the viewer, and generations to come. at the end of the day, the

sitters, the artists, and even the donors will sit here, but it is the audience that will remain. every portrait, no matter when it was created, is contemporary, because it is completed when someone has a personal encounter in their time. ultimately, these portraits will live to serve those millions of each of visitors looking for a mentor, some inspiration, and a sense of community. ironically, for this art museum, it is not what you look like that counts. it is what you do that matters. and through the skill of a talented artist providing a window into the life of a president and first lady, people learn history and their place in it, set the course of human events in context, find empathy for others, and perhaps create a sense of connection that leads them feeling a little less alone. thank you. [applause]

>> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the podium the secretary of the smithsonian institution. [applause] >> good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on a very special day at the smithsonian. a, vice president biden, amy, kehinde, kim, the provost, regions, commissioners, and distinguished guests, it is an honor and privilege to share

this morning with you. as you probably know, we have to publications to celebrate today. first, president and mrs. obama will unveil their official portraits. and second, today is abraham lincoln's birthday. what you may not know is that president lincoln once credited a portrait with getting him elected. a photograph by the great matthew brady taken before lincoln's famous speech at the cooper union in february 1860. for many americans in 1860, this was the only lincoln they knew. the brady image appeared on the cover of "harper's weekly," in newspapers across the country, and on buttons and leaflets throughout the campaign. today that photograph is on display here at the national portrait gallery. lincoln may have given brady too much credit. there were probably a few other reasons he won the presidency. for example, i hear he was a

pretty good speaker. but his comments reflected something that was true back then and remains true more than a century and a half later, presidential portraits have a particular power to capture the public's imagination, to move people to think about america's leaders and american society itself in new and unexpected ways. this is why the portrait gallery has been collecting presidential portraits for 50 years, and it is why we have expanded the collection to include our nation's first ladies. we are excited to continue both of those traditions today. i want to stop for a moment and ask you to join me in recognizing the ongoing innovations of the portrait gallery director and her magnificent colleagues who are continually reimagining ways in which the portrait gallery can inform and inspire the american public and beyond. kim, congratulations. [applause]

if you think that just a little bit, you may remember another image that drew national attention a couple of years ago. it captured a tender moment at the opening of the national museum of african american history and culture. former president george w. bush was embracing, or rather, being embraced by first lady michelle obama. one headline called it "the hug felt around the country." i can only speculate as to what exactly made that image so moving to so many people, but when i look at that picture today, i can see clearly some of the many qualities that millions of americans have admired and continued to admire and michelle

obama for over a decade. her warms, her kindness, her ability to connect in real and meaningful ways with virtually everyone she encounters. as the first african-american woman to serve as first lady, michelle obama blazed the trail for women and girls of color, inspired countless women and men and children across the united states and around the world. during her eight years in the white house, she was a tireless advocate for causes that transcend partisan politics, fighting to end childhood obesity, encouraging young people to pursue a higher education, supporting our service members and their families, and working to ensure the girls around the world can and will go to school. even more impressive, she did all of this while raising two remarkable daughters and did it always with good humor and grace. [applause]

>> dear to my heart, mrs. obama also continues to be a devoted champion of the arts, and we need the arts so much in every day in our lives. as first lady, she helped give african-american artists a greater presence on the walls of the white house, a commitment of her selection of amy sherald to paint her portrait reflects and one that we had the smithsonian here are so proud to share. now it is my honor and privilege to invite mrs. obama and amy sherald to unveil the portrait. [applause]

[applause] [cheers and applause] mrs. obama: good morning, everyone.

let's just start by saying wow again. let's just take a minute. it is amazing. wow. how are you all doing? it is a pleasure and an honor to be here in this beautiful museum with all of you today. let me first think the secretary and kim sajet for their remarks and outstanding leadership and everything they have done to support us, to support the arts over these many years. i also want to recognize all of our dear friends and colleagues and our team members and family who are here with us today, too many to mention. joe, and i know jill is in traffic, thank you. thank you for being here. we love you. hi, mom. what is going on? what do you think? [laughter] mrs. obama: it is pretty nice, isn't it? i see so many people that i can

thank, people who have been with us on this journey. we love you all. thank you for taking the time. i have to tell you that as i stand here today with all of you and look at this amazing portrait that will hang among so many iconic figures, i am a little overwhelmed, to say the least. i have so many thoughts and feelings rolling around inside of me now. i am humbled, honored, proud, but most of all, i am so incredibly grateful to all of the people who came before me in this journey, the folks who built the foundation upon which i stand. as you may have guessed, i do not think there is anybody in my family who has ever had a portrait done, let alone a

portrait that will be hanging in the national gallery, at least as far as i know, mom. [laughter] mrs. obama: but all those folks who helped me be here today, they are with us physically, and with us in spirit. i am thinking about my grandparents, rebecca and pernell shields, southside, as he is known now throughout the nation. they were all intelligent, highly capable men and women. they had the kind of talent and work ethic that usually destined people for greatness, but their dreams and aspirations were limited because of the color of their skin. i am thinking about my dad, frazier robinson, iii, a man who sacrificed everything to give me and my brother every opportunity that he never dreamed for himself. of course, i think about my mommy, marian robinson, who is sitting in the front row

supporting us, like she has always done, always putting herself last on her list so that she could give me and craig and our children everything that makes today possible. i am also thinking about all of the young people, particularly girls and girls of color, who in years ahead will come to this place, and they will look up and will see an image of someone who looks like them hanging on the wall of this great american institution. yeah. [applause] mrs. obama: and i know the kind of impact that will have on their lives, because i was one

of those girls. and when i think about those future generations and generations past, i think, again, wow, wow, what an incredible journey we are on together in this country. we have come so far. and yes, as we see today, we still have a lot more work to do, but we have every reason to be hopeful and proud. and i am truly grateful to have had the opportunity to stand alongside my husband and play a very small part in that history and in that future. but i am even more proud of the extraordinary woman and artist who made this portrait possible. amy sherald.

[cheers and applause] mrs. obama: not yet. i have got more to say about you, girl. barack and i had the privilege of considering a number of outstanding portraitists, and i want to thank bill allman, thelma golden, michael smith, our team. we love you guys. i know you are out there. who guided us every step of the way. oh, there you are. of course i can see you guys. thank you. they guided us through every step of the way through this process. we never could have done this without you, because you not only know your craft and all these folks but you know us intimately and knew what we were looking for and what we wanted to say. so thank you to the dynamic trio. with their help, we narrowed down the field to a few key

artists who barack and i then interviewed. each of these artists had to walk into the oval office -- yikes -- and i almost wanted to start off each conversation by apologizing for putting them through this process. i mean, just to get this job, they had to come to the white house, to the oval office, and get grilled by the president and first lady. i am sorry. i am so sorry. [laughter] mrs. obama: it was not lost on us how unnerving this experience was for each and every one of them. and when amy came in and it was her turn, i have to admit that i was intrigued. i was intrigued before she walked into the room. i had seen her work and was blown away by the boldness of her colors and the uniqueness of her subject matter. so i was wondering, who is this woman? and, she is so cute, too. [laughter] mrs. obama: and then she walked in, and she was sly and poised, and i just wanted to stare at her for a minute. she had this lightness and

freshness of personality. she was hip and cool in that totally expected/unexpected kind of way. within the first few sentences of our conversation, i knew she was the one for me. maybe it was the moment she came in and looked at barack and said, mr. president, i am really excited to be here. i know i am considered for both portraits, but she said, "mrs. obama" -- she physically turned to me, and she said, "i am really hoping that you and i can work together." [laughs] [applause] mrs. obama: and after that, she and i, we started talking, and barack kind of faded into the woodwork. there was an instant connection, that kind of sister girl connection, that i had with this woman, and that was true through the process, which is a good thing. because when someone is doing your portrait, they spend hours staring at you.

yikes. it is very intimate, the experience, so you really have to trust the person and feel comfortable enough to let yourself go. and amy made that possible for me. we had that connection. so today, i want to thank amy for being willing to put herself through this process, especially after it was leaked -- i felt for you, girl -- you know, to have to do that, to paint a portrait of michelle and barack obama is like cooking thanksgiving dinner for strangers. everybody has an idea of what thanksgiving dinner is supposed to taste like. the dressing that you love is the dressing you love. you do not want other stuff in it. [laughter] mrs. obama: and that is what it is like. people know what they feel and think in how they see us, so amy had to interpret that and do it

under the spotlight. so i can only imagine that it has been a little stressful for her, but she has handled it all with remarkable poise and grace, which i think tells you a lot about who she is. she is obviously a woman of extraordinary talents, and it is thrilling to see her getting the recognition she deserves with all the awards and calls from museums and buyers lining up to purchase her work. even more important, amy is a woman of extraordinary character and strength. her path has been strewn with obstacle after obstacle. she faced life-threatening medical conditions of her own, she has made tremendous sacrifices for the people she loves. she has endured the heartbreak of losing some of those that she has loved, and all through it, she kept going. she stayed faithful to her gifts, she refused to give up on what she had to offer to the world. as a result, she is well on her way to distinguishing herself as one of the great artists of her generation. it was a total joy --

[applause] mrs. obama: it was a total joy to work with you, amy. i am so pleased and honored and proud of you. so it is my honor to introduce amy to all of you today, the woman who created this beautiful portrait, amy sherald. [cheers and applause] amy: good morning. thanks for being here so early. mrs. obama, i want to begin by saying thank you. thank you for seeing my vision, and thank you for being a part of my vision.

i paint american people, and i tell american stories through the paintings i create. i find my models. i style them and photograph them. i then use that photograph as a reference. my approach to portraiture is conceptual. once my paintings are complete, the model no longer lives in that painting as themselves. i see something bigger, more symbolic, an archetype. so approaching the commission with you as the subject of this painting is deeply connected to what i hold as as my truth. this portrait delivers the same kind of symbolism. the dress was designed by milly. it has an abstract pattern that reminded me of a dutch artist's geometric paintings.

but the design also resembles inspired quilt masterpieces made by the women of a small remote black community in alabama. they create quilts using geometry to transform clothing and fabric remnants turned into masterpieces. a photographer and historian wrote, you have engaged the imagination of a new generation of writers and artists as we chronicle the commanding role you played in american culture. mrs. obama, you are omnipresent in that way. you exist in our minds and our hearts because we can see ourselves in you. the act of michelle obama being her authentic self became a profound statement that engaged all of us, because what you represent to this country is an ideal, a human being with integrity, intellect, confidence and compassion.

[applause] amy: and the paintings i create aspire to express these attributes. a message of humanity. i would like to think they hold the same possibilities as being read universally. i will always be grateful for this enormous opportunity to work with you. this experience has humbled and has honored me in ways that will stay with me, forever. thank you again for bringing light and clarity to my journey as a painter of american stories and i truly consider today to be a defining milestone in my life's work. [applause] amy: and i just want to say without crying, a quick thank you to my mom for supporting me all the way through. [applause]

>> thank you, mrs. obama, and thank you, amy. president obama, i know of everyone here, you are aware that your wife is a tough act to follow. i hope that you are more prepared than i am. [laughter] >> it is hard to believe that just 11 years have passed since barack obama launched his presidential campaign in abraham lincoln's home town of springfield, illinois. it was 11 years ago this very week. some of you might recall that when he addressed the crowd outside the old state capitol,

the quoted a speech in which lincoln observed the strange, discordant and even hostile elements that america confronted in 1858. at the time of president obama's inauguration, america again faced challenges that could be described in quite similar terms. a global economic crisis. wars in iraq and afghanistan. rapid technological progress and the rising uncertainty that came with that progress. during a period of profound change in the country and the world, president obama provided a steady leadership that millions of americans were seeking. he was a voice of calm in times of chaos. he was a voice of comfort in times of grief. and he was a voice of confidence at all times, confidence in the resilience of the american people and the promise of a better future for all. in one important sense, president obama's historic election was a departure from america's past, but he also embodied the ideals that define

some of the other presidents portrayed in these halls. lincoln's secular faith in our national union. kennedy's commitment to public service. reagan's optimism that america's best days are still to come. for these reasons and more, barack obama was a very consequential president. he will long be the subject of admiration and study and fascination. when future generations look back at this presidency, i believe that the portrait will give them a unique window in a way that only presidential portraits can, a window into both the man and the moment when he led with such distinction, and with that, please join me in inviting president barack obama

and the artist to unveil the portrait. [applause] [cheers and applause] [indiscernible] [laughter]

pres. obama: good morning, everybody. it is wonderful to see all of you. how about that? [laughter] pres. obama: that is pretty sharp. it is my great honor to be here. i want to thank the secretary and kim for your outstanding leadership, the crown jewels of american life and your extraordinary stewardship. i want to thank everybody who lives here. michelle and i are so grateful for the friends and family and former staff and current staff who have taken the time to be here and honor us in this way

and soak in the extraordinary art that we are seeing here. it means so much to us, and i hope you are aware of that. we miss you guys. [laughter] [applause] pres. obama: we miss you guys, and we miss the ways those who worked with us on this incredible journey carried yourselves and worked so hard to make this country a better place. amy, i want to thank you for spectacularly capturing the grace and beauty and intelligence and charm and hotness of the woman i love.

[laughter] pres. obama: a special shout out to my man, joe biden. [applause] pres. obama: an even more special shout out to my mother-in-law. who in addition -- [applause] pres. obama: who in addition to providing the hotness genes -- [laughter] pres. obama: also has been such an extraordinary rock and foundation stone for our family, and we are so grateful to her. we love her so much.

[applause] pres. obama: like michelle, i have never had a portrait done of myself. the hope poster was cool, but i did not sit for it. nobody in my family tree, as far as i can tell, had a portrait done. i do have my high school yearbook picture. [laughter] which is noama: great shakes. [laughter] when i heardma: this was part of the tradition, i did not quite know what to do, we were somewhat confused. we were lucky to have some extraordinary friends and people with exquisite taste. assist ands an

helped us to consider a whole range of artists. immediate connection with the two artists that are sitting here today. i think it's fair to say we bonded, maybe not the whole sister girl thing. , talked about sartre uriel decisions -- sartorial decisions.

but we had things in common. both of us had american mothers who raised us with extraordinary love and support. with of us had african fathers who had been absent from our lives, and in some ways as our journeys involved searching for them and figuring out what that meant, i ended up writing about that journey and channeling it into the work i did because i cannot paint. his journeyat reflected those feelings in his art. what i was always struck by whenever i saw his portraits was the degree to which they challenged our conventional views of power and privilege. and the way that he would take extraordinary care and precision and vision in recognizing the

beauty and the grace and the dignity of people who are so often invisible in our lives. and put them on a grand stage, on a grand scale. force us to look and see them in ways that so often, they were not. people that michelle referred to, people in our families, who helped build this country, who helped build this capital, people who to this day are making sure that this place is clean at night and serving food and taking out the garbage and doing all the other stuff that makes this country work. so often, out of sight and out of mind. he lifted them up and gave them

a platform and said they belonged at the center of american life. that was something that moved me deeply because in my small way, that is part of what i believe politics should be about, not simply celebrating the high and the mighty, expecting that the country unfolds from the top down, but that it comes from the bottom up. [applause] pres. obama: families all across america who are working hard and doing their best and passing on wisdom and resilience and stories to their children in the hopes that their lives will be a little bit better.

i was excited about working with kehinde. let's face it, he was working at a disadvantage relative to amy, because his subject was less becoming. not as fly. [laughter] pres. obama: i want to say that -- michelle always used to joke, i am not somebody who is a great subject. i don't like posing. i get impatient, i look at my watch. i think, this must be done. one of those pictures must've worked, why is this taking so long? it is pretty torturous, trying to just take a picture of me, much less paint a portrait. i will say that working with him

was a great joy. he and his team made it easy. kehinde, in the tradition of a lot of great artists, actually cared to hear how i thought about it before doing exactly what he intended to do. [laughter] pres. obama: there were a number of issues that we were trying to negotiate. i tried to negotiate less gray hair. kehinde's artistic integrity would not allow him to do what i asked. i tried to negotiate smaller ears. [laughter] pres. obama: struck out on that as well.

maybe the one area where there were some concessions was, as i said before, kehinde often takes ordinary people and elevates them, lifts them up and puts them in these fairly elaborate settings. his initial impulse maybe in the work was also to elevate me and put me in the settings with partridges and scepters. [laughter] pres. obama: thrones and robes. [laughter] pres. obama: mounting me on horses. [laughter] pres. obama: i had to explain that i have enough political problems without you making me look like napoleon. [laughter] pres. obama: we have to bring it down a touch.

[laughter] pres. obama: and that's what he did. it is hard to judge something that is a portrait of you. but what i can say unequivocally is i am in awe of kehinde's gifts. what he and amy have given to this country and the world, we are both very grateful to have been the subject of their attention for this brief moment. mr. kehinde wiley. [applause]

kehinde: how do you explain that a lot of that is just simply not true? [laughter] kehinde: what is true is that this is an insane situation, to be able to stand on the stage and look out on this crowd and have this level of adrenaline in my blood tells me that something special is going on. my whole life is driven by chance. much as the work i am known for is just chance driven, complete strangers in the streets. trying to find people that have a sense of grace, a je ne se quoi, something that you feel

will translate on a painting on a museum wall. it is something you know, when you see it. you don't quite know what it is. people are minding their own business, trying to get to work, and i will tap them on the shoulder and i will say, do you mind if i paint you? people mostly say no. it is tough to get people to recognize what the gravity of art is. my job has been to slowly take these moments of chance and try to weave them into something that means something in the language of our history. these big museums are dedicated to what we as a society hold most dear. the great curators, their jobs are to be the guardians of culture, to say this is what we as a people stand for. growing up as a kid in south-central los angeles, going to the museums in l.a., there

were not too many people who happened to look like me in those museums, on those walls. as the years go on and i try to create my own type of work, it had to do with correcting for some of that, trying to find places where people who happened to look like me feel accepted or have the ability to express their state of grace on the grand narrative scale of museum space. that obsession with chance has gotten me here. in a very strange chance since you, mr. president, have found something in what i do, what my purpose has been as a creator, a thinker, a painter, to be able to project out into the world

this urge, this desire to see something corrected for. it seems silly. it is color paste, you are nudging things into being. but it is not, this is consequential. this is who we as a society --ided to celebrate chewed celebrate. this is our humanity. this is our ability to say i matter, i was here. the ability to be the first african-american painter to paint the first african-american president of the united states is absolutely overwhelming. [applause] kehinde: it does not get any better than that. i was humbled by this invitation, but i was also inspired by barack obama's personal story.

he and i both do have that echo of single parents, african fathers, that search for the father, that sense of twinning. there is that echo of he and i in that narrative. when you look at this painting, sure, an amazingly handsome man seated, but there are also botanicals going on that is a nod towards his personal story. chrysanthemums, the state flower of chicago. flowers that point toward kenya, toward hawaii. in a very symbolic way, what i am doing is charting his path on earth, through those plants. there is a fight going on between he and the foreground and the plants that are trying to announce themselves.

who gets to be the star of the show, the story or the man who inhabits that story? it is all chance driven. mr. president, i thank you for giving me a chance and i thank you for giving the nation a chance to experience your splendor on a global scale. thank you. [applause] >> your mom. [laughter] kehinde: you got it, dead on.

i was so in this zone. talk about not recognizing the real source of the light. my mother, can you please stand? [applause] kehinde: there is nothing i can say. this is really where it all starts. we did not have much, but she found a way to get paint and just the ability -- i will shut up and breathe. [laughter] kehinde: the ability to be able to picture something bigger than that piece of south-central l.a. we were living in. you saw it, you did it, thank you. [applause]

>> congress founded the national portrait gallery to collect and display portraits of those who have made a significant contribution to america's history and culture. this year marks our 50th anniversary and as the secretary mentioned, today marks president lincoln's 209th birthday. i wanted to thank all of the smithsonian and especially the national portrait gallery staff for making today so special, with particular appreciation to our chief curator and curators.

they stewarded both commissions. [applause] >> i sincerely hope that all of you here today will agree that the portrait gallery has an extraordinary mission, to visualize the motto on the great seal of america, e pluribus unum -- out of many, one. we hope you continue to support our work, starting with this moment by posting on social media using #mynpg. don't hold back in your celebratory and awestruck praise. [laughter] >> i now invite the president and mrs. obama and the artists over to their portraits for photographs. the first in front of the paintings with the artist in the second with everyone on stage. pres. obama: where do you want us? >> in front of the pictures.

pres. obama: how's that? [applause]

pres. obama: you guys got everything you need? [laughter] [applause] >> in closing, i want to leave

you with some of president lincoln's words, to remind us that what we do in life, no matter who we are, counts. every effect, said the president, must have its cause. the past is the cause of the present and the present will be the cause of the future. all of these are the links in the endless chain stretching from the finite to the infinite. thank you and thank you for being with us this morning. [applause]

>> tomorrow, the influence of politics on race relations on c-span. a recent event in new orleans that focused on issues like campaign finance, redistricting and the electoral college. among the speakers, actress jennifer lawrence, who interviewed trevor potter.

>> ok, so if there is a wall between candidates and super throw big money had a super pac, my personal politician does not get to decide how it is spent, right? >> well, that is technically correct except that the people who do decide how to spend it are usually in this scenario the former campaign manager of the candidate or close friends of the candidate, and one of my favorite examples, it was one of the parents of the candidate, who are running the super pac. they can also share what are called common vendors, so they can use the same consultants. basically, it is useful to see it as the other pocket on the candidate cost -- candidate's coat. >> but if the candidate tells the super pac what to do with the money -- that is legal?

>> that would be illegal. >> ok. [laughter] >> however, first they have to get caught and there has to be a majority vote on whether to investigate it and you may have heard the fec is basically deadlocked on all of this >> in the last couple of years. >>to hear the rest of the conversation and the rest of the speakers in new orleans tomorrow at 8:30 eastern on c-span. >> c-span, where history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies and today, we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, white house, the supreme court and public policy events in washington, d.c. and around the country. c-span is brought to you by